October 16 is World Food Day. Dining Out for Life 2016 is now under our belts (both literally and figuratively, I'm afraid) and Local Restaurant Week is next week (October 17 - 23).

Right on cue, Wallethub reveals 2016’s Best & Worst Foodie Cities. No, Buffalo did not rank in the top ten in any category, not even in the “number of food festivals per capita” category. Hmmm. Makes me suspicious. However, let's run with this.

Buffalo's overall rank is 19. Not bad, out of 150. Our total score is 57.87 (whatever that means). However, in Affordability, Buffalo only ranked 58th - again, making me a bit suspicious. Where were they eating, the Buffalo Chophouse? I'll bet our 4.5 star restaurants are more affordable than those almost anywhere else. But we ranked 20th in "diversity, accessibility and quality." Again, not bad. 

Here's how they say they came up with these stats:

"...WalletHub crunched the numbers to determine the best and cheapest foodie scenes among the 150 largest cities. They compared the cities across 21 key metrics, ranging from “cost of groceries” to “prevalence of affordable restaurants rated at least 4.5 stars” to “number of food festivals per capita.” 

Cities with the most restaurants per capita are Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Pittsburgh. Those with the most craft breweries & wineries per capita (all tied for first place, by the way) are Seattle, Denver, Portland, Tampa, and Cincinnati.

Do these numbers mean anything? Probably not. But they're fun to ponder.

Perhaps the most interesting factoids shared in this article are that "Americans today spend nearly a third of every food dollar on restaurant services. And in 2015, the National Restaurant Association reported that Americans spent more money at food establishments than at grocery stores." Wow!

Read the complete article here: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-foodie-cities/7522/